Snake Creek Gap Weekend 1

Well, it’s 5 months away from my first planned triathlon for the year (Xterra Pelham). This means that it’s time to start getting more serious and consistent with my training. My main goals for this year include a top 10 overall finish at Xterra Pelham and a top 3 age group finish at Xterra Nationals. In order to accomplish this, I will need to make improvements in all three triathlon disciplines. To start out, my training will consist of building a strong aerobic base. Compared to later in the season, this basically translates into slower pace and longer sessions, with an additional emphasis on core conditioning. Over the last month, I have been doing the BBL Saturday morning training rides. These weekly rides are generally around 70 miles in length with approximately 4 hours of saddle time. They provide cycling base training that will be crucial for a successful race season. This weekend, I decided to substitute the BBL road ride with the Snake Creek Gap Time Trial mountain bike race. This is a three race series that I plan to use as a strength builder and fitness indicator. After yesterday’s race event, I realize that I still have a lot of work to do to get where I need to be. I treated the race as more of a hard training ride than an actual race. This means that I took a couple short rest breaks (less than 5 min) and tried not to spend much time in the red zone (more than 80% max heart rate). With almost 10,000 feet of climbing on the 34 mile mountain bike course, muscle fatigue proved to be a far greater concern than heart rate zones. These are the type of events that put things in perspective and give you that mental and physical edge in Xterra triathlons.